First few days with my Ace 250

[BrianBristol]

Well, I've had a few opportunities to get out with my new detector. I've met with mixed success.

The first couple of times were out in my yard, which I've detected several times before. So far in the past couple of days I've come up with 7 pennies, 1 dime, and 2 quarters. Also found several bent nails, a couple bottle tops, a screen door latch, and a small toy car. My yard is full of junk.

Went out to a park today, and found a quarter, a dozen pennies, a nickel, and a dime, all newer stuff. It was a park I had never detected before, and I tried the shoreline as well as the areas 30' from the water where shade trees are found.

Here are a couple of my thoughts/comments on this new detector:

• Seems to be an improvement over my old detector, since I found coins in locations that I had searched previously.
• The visual display is nice, although it seems to bounce around a lot, even when I'm over a coin
• The pinpointing is frustrating...I've had holes dug 10" wide, not able to locate the find.
• Almost all of the coins I've found have been shallow...most wrapped up in the grass roots. I haven't found anything deeper than 4", even when the detector showed 6"+
• Getting a good signal swinging one direction and then not the other is frustrating, and happens a LOT. Also, the coil does not seem to like to react when you move backward and forward with it.
• There have been several times when I've gotten a decent signal, dug a plug, scanned again, and detected nothing (yes I checked the plug too).
• Using earphones takes a little getting used to, but I think it helps you keep focused on the sounds.

Overall, I think I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. From everything good I've heard, it's gotta be operator error :)

[pris]

Hey Brian! Keep with it and you'll figure it out. I have found, normally, that when you get a sketchy signal that it is usually trash. I still dig it all, but I don't think I've ever found anything other than trash with that kind of signal. I've never found gold, either, and when I bench test gold, it seems to jump between pull tab and nickel.

As for the signal that goes away, this happens frequently, but it's probably just the halo effect where the metal that was there has left a concentrated amount in the soil. Once you dig, you dissipate that signal.

Pinpointing is much better with the sniper coil. You will get better with practice with the stock coil, but it's still not near as good as the sniper.

HH

[JCWhite]

You are doing the right things.... Just keep on practicing and you will learn how to pinpoint much better with your detector.

[FinalLastDays]

The standard coil for the Ace 250 really is not too hard to pinpoint on a target. The Sniper coil, as others have mentioned, is easier to pinpoint, but it doesn't mean the 6.5" x 9" is "hard". Here's a little advice, I hope it may be of some help to you. Put a coin on top of the ground and press (and hold) your pinpoint button as you scan slowly on top of the coin. You will then see exactly where the location of the target is in relation to the coil position. Try this with a few different coins and trash items. You can raise the coil a few inches from the target to get an idea of depth pinpointing as well. There are times I like to use only the sniper coil when metal detecting, however I definately like the 6.5" x 9" coil as well, so learning to pinpoint is definately a plus with it. Good luck!

[dooby]

The first thing you need to know about the Ace250 is that the SWEET SPOT on the stock coil for the Ace250 is probably NOT in the center of your coil.

How do you pinpoint with the Ace250 ?

1. Look at your stock coil. It has what appears to be a larger coil around a smaller "inner" coil.

2. The sweet spot on my coil is at the TOP of the inner coil, not in the center of the coil as I had assumed when I purchased the detector.

3. To pinpoint a target, hold your pinpoint button down and make an "X" pattern over your target and attempt to find the center. A quick note here about pinpointing: move your coil off the target and inch or two before hitting the pinpoint button.

4. Now while still holding the pinpoint button down and centered over your target, slowly begin to pull the coil across the ground and back towards you.

5. When your signal begins to fade, STOP, your target should be right at the top of the "inner" coil.

Give this technique a try with a coin on top of the ground and practice pinpointing before your next hunt. This pinpointing technique works very well for me.

One other thing I have found is if your target is below a couple of inches of dirt, your target may be under or just behind the top of the coil. If I don't locate a target within a minute or so of probing, I re-pinpoint and usually find I am off a bit left or right.

[dooby]

are absolutely correct about the sniper coil, it works extremely well, pinpointing is a breeze, dead center of the coil, but as boobie said, you must work slower with the sniper coil.

as well as good advice from pris and finallastdays !!!

I purchased a sniper coil from Chuck, your not going to find better customer service than at Treasure Hut !!!

[BrianBristol]

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice everybody...it helps a lot!

[westattam]

Everything you encountered with the ACE is normal, and I've seen the same things with mine. Pinpointing just takes practice and the advice about putting coins and objects on the surface was right 'on the money'.

I recently learned some other good advice (in these forums), which was to use the jewerly mode for coin hunting. It won't notch out gold like the coin mode (although you'll get pull tabs), and seems to work very well.

I recently got the sniper coil and still need to practice with it. Everything I've heard about it sounds very promising.

Good luck and HH!!

[Dyrty]

Thanks to everyone for your excellent tips. This is must read thread for us rookies.

[indian40]

After all of Pris's and Boobies recommmendations about the Ace 250 sniper coil I figure I need to get me one. My first question is how is the pinpointing easier than the standard coil? It seems the open design of the standard coil was pretty easy to at least see your pinpointed digging mark.

Second question is does the sniper coil require a coil cover? I damaged my standard coil by not using one thanks .....Kevin (indian40)